Playing an undead in the Champions world

Ah, thank you, CC. All that narrows things down considerably. 👌 At the moment I have two recommendations in mind.

Your interest in primarily focusing on the supernatural, and being international in scope, has me leaning toward the Trismegistus Council. Several of their members are wealthy, so resources other than large-scale military or high-tech ones should not be hard to obtain. Although definitely on the side of good, the Council can be quite ruthless in fighting supernatural evil. While they probably already know a great deal about vampires, they're primarily scholars, so would likely welcome an opportunity for further research. The Council also isn't a monolithic organization -- its members are diverse in their personalities and beliefs, and engage in no small amount of squabbling and internal politics. (The Trismegistus Council is detailed in the Champions Universe source book.)

However, when you brought up that the character started out incarcerated for study, that got me thinking about a different branch of US government, the Department of Defense. You might have seen references I've made on the forums to Department 17, DOD's center for research into reliably creating superhumans, and making those superhumans more controllable than they have been in the past. I would think that a vampire's capacity for "procreation," and their existing exploitable weaknesses, would sound like a potentially fruitful subject for study.

DOD in the CU has a number of superhuman assets engaged in both overt and covert activities, some working for the Department directly, others assigned to specific branches of the military. While most are named, Champions Universe p. 42 notes that "The Defense Intelligence Agency is also rumored to have its own “super-agent,” but no details are publicly known."

Granted, the Department of Defense isn't focused on supernatural matters, but when faced with such it might take a "best tool for the job" approach to using your character.

It's also worth noting that, just as in the real world, different Champions government agencies cooperate with each other, or with other governments, in areas of overlapping jurisdiction and shared concerns. So whichever branch of government your character ended up working for, you could bring in other groups for particular stories.

Pursuant to that point, America's Department of Superhuman and Paranormal Affairs (DOSPA) is the Cabinet-level organization with responsibility for all superhuman and paranormal persons and activities within the territory of the United States, or impacting its global interests. That includes oversight for all superhumans working for the American government, regardless of which specific agency employs them. When necessary DOSPA coordinates relevant interdepartmental activities. For example, DOD and DOSPA jointly supervise Department 17. DOSPA's role does sometimes cause friction with other departments.

You know, now that I think of it, DOSPA would make a good umbrella organization for your purpose, particularly if you want to create an original agency which manages your character. Part of its mandate is "to research and investigate issues pertaining to superhumanity, superpowers, super-technology, and the like." (Champions Universe p. 41)

"DOSPA is organized into eight primary divisions, whose responsibilities are evident from their names: Alien Affairs; Diplomatic Affairs; Military Affairs; Mystic Affairs; National Security Affairs; Research & Development; Supertechnology Affairs; and World Security Affairs. An Undersecretary heads each division and reports to the Secretary, who in turn reports to the President as requested or required by law." (Ibid.)

You're welcome, I'm glad you found that helpful. 😎 Let me bring up one more suggestion, before you decide.

Keeping your previously-stated preferences in mind, and the lore we've laid out so far, this is the way I would go if this was my character: Inquisitor unwittingly stumbles into the middle of an American military black op, and is captured. Once DOD realize what they have, he's given the alternative of remaining in safe and relatively comfortable confinement while scientists study him; or face the United States military bent on his destruction. Obviously having no choice, he agrees and is transferred to Department 17 for scientific analysis. As D17 also reports to DOSPA, the Undersecretary for Mystic Affairs gets wind of him, and decides a supernatural operative under government control would be a more efficient alternative to deal with some of the problems his division faces, than relying on freelance occult superheroes. So he pulls strings to "borrow" Inquisitor from time to time for missions, probably over DOD objections.

I admit, that does serve the purpose I was trying to fulfill. I also admit that writing government and military fiction is difficult for me - although I do love it, and have already dipped my toes with my other characters.

Still messing around with details, but where would one find more on Department 17? If there's that much, at all?

Not a huge amount, but what there is is intriguing. Most of the info is concentrated in Champions Universe, with a little more in a few other books. I'll summarize the main points below.

Department 17 is a successor to the secret Haynesville Project, aka "Project Rainbow," set up in 1941 to study superhumans and related phenomena. Project Rainbow was based at Fort McLaughlin (now McLaughlin Air Force Base) just outside of the small farming town of Haynesville, Kansas (present-day pop. 15,000). That site was chosen because it was where America's first superhero, Captain Patriot, originated in 1938. As of 1948 Project Rainbow was officially declared over, but in fact it never completely ceased operation. There have been numerous subsequent "superhuman soldier" projects conducted by the military over the decades since, with a few successes but many more failures, and having produced villains as well as heroes.

D17 remains the top-secret hub of the Defense Department's research into reliably creating superhumans, as well as finding means to more effectively control them. It's still covertly based at McLaughlin AFB, which on the surface appears all but closed down. Functioning in conjunction with and under the oversight of DOSPA, Department 17 has made some intriguing breakthroughs during its sixty-plus-year existence, but has never discovered a safe, consistent method either for creating superhumans or controlling them once they’re created. (Any experiment or activity which could be rationalized as serving one of those goals is possible.)

As of 2010 (the latest date given in the books), the head of Department 17 was General Clarence Smith. Under his leadership, the program focused most of its efforts on trying to develop an improvement to the Cyberline procedure used by PRIMUS to augment its Silver Avengers, so that it would create stronger, but also more easily controlled, superhumans. To that end Department 17 scientists have experimented with all sorts of genetic engineering, unusual chemicals, strange radiations, and the like. They’re always interested in information about any new manifestation of superhuman or paranormal abilities.

Champions Universe p. 138 notes that General Smith has to engage in "a bit of creative accounting to keep his secret project alive — if his DOSPA superiors or Congress were to learn of this, they’d be very unhappy." It also suggests that "Smith might go to great lengths to keep his project a secret, though not all of his employees would approve." It occurs to me that if Inquisitor is being used by the government for covert missions, it would also occur to Gen. Smith at some point to try to use him to eliminate some of his own administrative problems.

I'd be happy to answer any more questions or offer further suggestions on this topic; but as it's moving farther away from the subject of this thread, I would suggest contacting me by Private Message. 😊